


First Reunion: Ready Or Not

by MauveCat



Category: Endless Summer (Visual Novel)
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:55:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29980434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MauveCat/pseuds/MauveCat
Summary: As the Catalysts prepare to commemorate the anniversary of their arrival on La Huerta, it looks like the journey will be more difficult for one of them.
Relationships: Estela Montoya/Main Character (Endless Summer)
Kudos: 3





	First Reunion: Ready Or Not

Awakened by a familiar, enticing aroma, Quinn stuck her head out of her bedroom. “Hey. Did you fix coffee already, Michelle?”

“No,” her roommate called absently. “I’m afraid that someone broke in last night, started the coffee maker for us, and left.”

“Ask a silly question, I guess,” Quinn laughed as she made her way to the living room, dodging the moving boxes that still lined the hallway. His jaws split apart by a massive yawn, Furball followed close behind her. “So what are you... wow.” Carefully making her way through the stacks of papers, Quinn made her way over to the couch and flopped down. “Don’t tell me that you’re studying for the MCAT at this hour.”

“I won’t, because I’m not. I’m taking a break from prepping for that for a day or two and I decided that as long as I’m going to have some free time, I should organize my materials for med school applications.”

“ _This_ is your idea of taking a break?” Quinn grinned at Michelle. “It’s seven o’clock on a Sunday morning, and here you are hard at work. When you apply for something, you don’t mess around.”

“Med school waits for no student, not even one who was stuck in a time loop for six months,” Michelle answered without looking away from her tablet. She gave Furball a pat as the ice fox brushed by her, nimbly following in Quinn’s footsteps; once he’d cleared the minefield, he joined Quinn on the couch and curled up by the redhead’s side. “I have a few months before I’ll be ready to send anything in, but I don’t want to leave it to the last minute.”

Quinn laughed. “I don’t think procrastination is ever going to be one of your problems.” She snagged a booklet from the arm of the couch. “Still looking at Harvard, huh?”

Sighing, Michelle finally put her tablet down. “Yeah. I’d always planned on applying to both Harvard and Johns Hopkins because of their surgery programs, but now I don’t know what I’ll do if I actually get accepted to either one.”

Quinn frowned a little. “I thought you had your heart set on being a neurosurgeon.”

“So did I. I mean, I haven’t definitely decided _not_ to become a surgeon. It’s just... I don’t know.” Michelle leaned back on her hands and looked at the piles of paperwork surrounding her. “I guess I’m questioning my reasons for setting my sights on neurosurgery when I was seventeen. I’ve been thinking a lot about it and... well, if I’m honest, I told everyone I was going to be a world-famous neurosurgeon because I thought that was the most challenging branch of medicine. And it probably is, but lately I’ve been wondering if that was the only reason I made it my goal. I don’t want to build my life around something just to prove that I’m the best.”

“So... not Harvard?”

“Oh, no, I’m definitely still applying there! Whether I decide on surgery or some other field, it’s going to be an amazing program and I’d be honored to be accepted. But I got to thinking about something else – here they are.” Stretching out, Michelle picked up two course catalogs and handed them to Quinn. “It’s unorthodox, but some med schools offer three-year programs. It’d be a rough haul but after what we went through, I want to start making a difference as soon as possible. I don’t want to waste any more time than I have to.”

“ _Michelle_. You knock that off right now.” Quinn looked at her roommate with stern affection. “You’re already the only one of us who’s still on track to graduate when we were supposed to.” She held up her hand when Michelle began to answer. “And I don’t want to hear any more about how you’re upset with yourself for not graduating early like you’d planned, okay? As soon as we hit Florida, you were on the phone with your advisor at Hartfeld to make sure that you could still sign up for spring semester classes, _and_ you’re taking some more this summer so you can catch up.”

Brushing her hair out of her face, Michelle let out a long breath. “I know. It’s the way I’m wired, I guess. It’s going to be hard to change who I am.”

“Then it’s a good thing that’s not what I’m suggesting.” Sliding off the couch so she was sitting cross-legged on the floor, Quinn made sure Michelle was looking at her before she went on. “No one – well, no one who really knows you, I mean – wants you to change who you are. You’re brilliant and ambitious and those are _not_ bad things, no matter what your sorority sisters thought.” Michelle laughed ruefully at that. “No, I’m serious! You keep on being _you_. It’s what makes us love you. But... you need to cut yourself a break now and then, okay?”

“...Okay.” After a last look at her application paperwork, Michelle got to her feet. “I’ve had coffee already, but it’s probably time for something a little more substantial. You with me?”

“You know it!” Standing up as well, Quinn once again picked her way through the maze of papers. “How about pancakes, or maybe waffles... damn it, no. I don’t think I unpacked the waffle iron yet. Pancakes it is, then!” she said as the two women went into the kitchen. “Oooh, or we have some bread that’s going stale. Is French toast okay with you?”

Michelle laughed. “I would have been happy with regular dry toast, so I definitely won’t say no to something fancier! I hope you know that when I suggested moving in together, I didn’t mean that you had to cook and bake for me all the time.” Furball padded along beside her, and he hopped up on one of the kitchen chairs.

“Are you kidding? I love having someone to help me eat what I make. Could you grab the milk and eggs out of the fridge for me?” Quinn took out a mixing bowl and, looking over her shoulder, she added, “But now that you’ve officially moved out of the sorority house, Zahra and Craig might be planning some – um, shenanigans to get back at them for what they did to you and Sean.”

Michelle froze, a carton of eggs in her hands. “What kind of shenanigans are we talking about?” she asked warily.

“They won’t tell me any details,” Quinn replied with a philosophical shrug. “They promised that no one would get hurt, though, and they’ll keep property damage to a minimum. Anyway, since their love language is acts of mayhem, I suppose we have to expect this sort of thing from time to time.”

“I suppose so.” Shaking her head, Michelle brought the eggs and milk over to Quinn. “I know it’s weird to feel like this since they’re just on the other side of town with Raj, but... I miss them. I miss all of them. I even miss Jake’s stupid nicknames for all of us.”

Quinn began cracking the eggs into the mixing bowl. “Me too. I’m glad that Aleister and Grace will be back at Hartfeld before classes start, at least, and don’t forget that Estela’s coming back this fall too. I hate that Diego is finishing his degree online, though, and....” She trailed off.

“It’s okay, you can say it.” Michelle sighed as she started making a fresh pot of coffee. More than one member of their group wouldn’t be at Hartfeld this year. The Condors had been ready to sign Sean right away, but they’d agreed to wait until he finished his senior year. Once their trip to La Huerta had thrown all their plans up in the air, however, Sean had decided to take the team up on their initial offer. “Sean is right. He can’t afford to give the Condors a chance – or a reason – to release him from his contract by making them wait a year longer than they’d planned. Going pro now is the best thing for him, even if Hartfeld’s football coach will hold a grudge until his dying day.”

“I know. It sucks for us too.” Quinn gave Michelle a quick hug as she took cinnamon and a bottle of vanilla out of the cupboard. “But at least he’ll be able to make the trip with us when we all go back to La Huerta in a couple of weeks.”

“I hope it’s all of us,” Michelle frowned. “I talked to Estela yesterday, and she was kind of short with me. She wouldn’t give me a yes or no when I asked if she was flying down with us.”

Quinn winced. “Whoops.” At Michelle’s questioning look, she said, “I... might have asked her the same thing when I talked to her yesterday too. She probably thinks we’re ganging up on her.”

“I suppose in a way, we are,” Michelle replied, her voice soft. “After she met with Aleister in New York, she seemed to be doing a little better when she came up here to see me. I guess I was hoping that she’d still be... I don’t know, healing. But grief doesn’t work like that, does it?”

“Nope,” Quinn agreed sadly. “We probably need to coordinate a little better when we talk to her.”

“That’s a good idea. I’ll pass the word.” But even as she began setting the table, Michelle’s expression was troubled.

* * *

After readjusting her grip on her shopping bags, Estela watched the bus disappear into the distance before she sighed and turned in the direction of Tio Nicolas’s house. She wasn’t sure how she felt about how mundane her life had been over the past few months. She’d spent years training for revenge against the man responsible for her mother’s death, only to find out he was the man who had fathered her. Then she’d spent weeks trying to avert the end of the world, only to lose her heart to the only woman she’d ever love, a woman whose loss had ripped a gaping, agonizing wound through every fiber of Estela’s life. And now she’d spent months trying to figure out what her life could possibly look like going forward, and she was no nearer an answer than she had been when she’d watched Taylor disappear into the stars. She filled her days with minor errands and long walks, and her nights... her nights consisted of long, sleepless hours punctuated by unsettling, memory-filled dreams. She awoke every morning with her heart broken anew. She couldn’t think of a single positive aspect of her current life.

Well, perhaps that wasn’t entirely true. To her complete shock, she had a brother. Even more astonishing, considering their shared paternity, she didn’t loathe him. In fact, she was somehow becoming actually fond of Aleister. What was more, thanks to his decision to split the remains of their father’s companies with her, Estela was, for lack of a better word, loaded. Neither she nor her brother were anywhere near Everett Rourke’s level of mind-numbing wealth, but she still found herself uncomfortably lodged in the ranks of the idle rich.

That newfound wealth had allowed Estela to sign up for another year at Hartfeld without worrying about how she’d pay for her education, but as the date for her departure for the United States approached, she felt herself less sure about her decision with every day. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be possible to complete her degree here in San Trobida anytime soon. General Salazar had closed down all of the colleges and universities in the last years of his regime, even going so far as to raze most of the buildings in La Colina’s campus; even though he was gone and San Trobida was taking its first faltering steps toward democracy, none of the schools were fully open yet and it would be a few years before they could accept credits from other universities, especially those in other countries. If only the university could open sooner... it would be easier to avoid thinking about Taylor’s loss here at home.

Estela sighed again. No, that wasn’t true. Staying here in La Colina hadn’t kept her grief at bay, and there was no use pretending otherwise. The memories and the anguish followed her wherever she went... but how much worse would it be on La Huerta? Michelle and Quinn had both talked to her last week about the planned trip, and just yesterday she’d had a video chat with Raj about the same topic. It was easy enough for _them_ to talk about some kind of reunion. None of them had felt their soul ripped apart like she had.

Opening the gate, Estela walked up to the house. As she entered, she frowned at the sight of a strange pair of shoes by the front door. No. Not shoes... boots. And not just boots, but boots just like the ones that....

“Hey, Katniss.” Estela looked up in shock and the bags dropped from her hands. Jake winced. “Geez. Hope there weren’t eggs in there.” There he was, sitting on her uncle’s sofa, his stockinged feet on her uncle’s coffee table, looking as if he belonged, as if there was nowhere else in the world he’d rather be.

“What... what are you doing here?” Estela stammered.

_“Ah, Estelita. Dile a este idiota que mueva los pies,_ ” Tio Nicolas said as he entered the living room and put a tray of drinks on the coffee table.

“ _El idiota_ _habla español_ ,” Jake replied with a grin as he lowered his feet to the ground.

Nicolas gave him an answering smirk. “ _Sí, lo sé_.” Glancing at his niece, Nicolas switched to English. “Well? Are you going to leave the groceries to rot next to the door? You’ll be responsible for the flies, you know.”

Stunned, Estela kept staring at Jake. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I was in the neighborhood and I thought I’d drop in,” Jake replied with a shrug as he took a glass of lemonade.

“Bullshit. What the _hell_ are you doing here?”

Nicolas sighed as he sat down across from Jake. “My apologies, Jake. My niece usually... well, I was going to say that she usually has better manners, but that would be a lie,” he said cheerfully. “Sit down, Estelita.”

When Estela remained on her feet, Jake sighed. “I really was in the neighborhood, relatively speaking. I dropped off some stuff for Diego, and I’m heading up to the States in a few days so I figured this would be as good spot for a layover as anywhere else. I thought you might want to come with me when I head out. If nothing else, you and me can do some sightseeing for a couple of days, and then you can decide if you’re going on the trip with us.”

Blinking back tears, Estela shook her head. “I’m not going.”

“I think you should, _chiquilla_.” Nicolas took a sip of his lemonade, and he winced. “How much sugar did you put in this, Estela? Now I know why you went to the store to buy more.” Putting down his glass, he looked at his niece sympathetically. “I know that you haven’t told me everything that happened to you on that damned island, and you know that I won’t ask you to. But… I have been through a war of my own, Estela, and there are things that only another soldier can ever fully understand. I think it’s the same with you and your friends.”

“They’re not my friends, Tio,” Estela said weakly.

Nicolas snorted. “You’ve never been a good liar, _mija_. Would this shaggy-haired fool be sitting on my sofa if he wasn’t your friend?”

Jake shook his head, not the least bit offended. “You’ve known me for an hour, and you’re already insulting me. You and Estela are a lot alike.”

“We are, and that is how I know what Estela needs, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.” Standing up, Nicolas walked over to Estela’s side and put his hands on her shoulders. “ _Chiquilla,_ listen to him, all right? Why don’t the two of you go for a walk – that way, you can discuss all the things that you don’t want me to hear. Just be sure that you and _el chaparrito_ don’t walk too far since I’m making dinner reservations for us.”

“I still speak Spanish, ya know.”

“And I still know that you do,” Nicolas replied as he grabbed the grocery bags and walked out of the living room.

When he was gone, Jake grinned. “Ornery old cuss, ain’t he? I like him.” When Estela didn’t answer, he sighed and got to his feet. “Okay, Katniss, you’re probably gonna say that I should have told you I was coming. But I figured that you’d just tell me to stay away and, well, _that_ wasn’t gonna happen. So how about you and me take that walk? I’ll make my case, and you’ll call me a dumbass, and we’ll take it from there.”

“…Fine.” Estela stepped back as Jake bent down to put his boots back on. When he stood up, she couldn’t help smirking. “Look at that. You’re as tall as I am again.”

“Nice try. Last person who got a rise out of me that way was Billy Stockdale back in 10th grade. He was mad because I asked his cousin Mindy Sue to the Homecoming dance.”

In spite of herself, Estela asked, “Why was he mad about that?”

Jake grinned. “Took me a whole year to figure that one out… then when _Billy_ asked me to Homecoming in 11th grade, it made sense.”

That startled a laugh out of Estela. As she opened the front door, she asked, “So did you go with him?”

“Hell, yeah. Neither one of us might have been all that quick to figure things out, but turned out that the guy was a hell of a dancer.” When they reached the gate, Jake looked at Estela. “This is your turf. Which way do you want to go?”

Sighing, Estela pointed to her left. “This way, I suppose.” Without giving Jake a chance to respond, she started down the sidewalk.

“So where are we headed?”

Estela rolled her eyes. “If it were up to me, we’d just go around the block, I’d tell you there’s no way I’m going back to La Huerta, you’d try some feeble argument – which I promise you, I’d win – and then we’d let Tio Nicolas take us out for dinner.”

“Good thing it’s not up to you, then,” Jake said affably as he put his hands in his pockets. “I kinda love how you and me both already got our conversations written out in our heads. Anyway, I already had to make a supply run for Petey. Maybelline lost her shit when she found out that I let him go to La Huerta with just a dinky little first aid kit, so she sent me back down there with enough medical supplies to stock a small-town ER. She says she’s gonna corral a couple of the healers when she’s there, teach ‘em how to use the stuff if they need to.”

Reluctantly, Estela asked, “Is Diego settling in all right?”

“Seems to be. Kinda hard to tell, though, since I don’t think Varyyn lets go of him for more than ten seconds at a time.”

“That’s... good.” Estela took a deep, uneven breath. “I’m happy for them.”

“Yeah. You sure sound thrilled.” In spite of his words, there was no judgment in Jake’s voice. He nodded at a sign as they passed it. “You wanna keep going this way and stare at the beach for a while, or should we head toward downtown?”

“The beach, I think. Maybe I’ll get lucky and I’ll see a shark that I can feed you to.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.” The two of them kept quiet, walking slowly side by side until the sidewalk turned to a sandy path. “Huh,” Jake said as he looked around the almost-deserted beach. “Day as nice as this, I figured the place would be packed.”

Estela shrugged. “San Trobida doesn’t get a lot of tourists and most of the people around here work during the day. Not many of them can afford to take time off in the middle of the afternoon.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Jake glanced at Estela. “How long do you think it’ll be before things change around here?”

“Who knows? San Trobida was a vacation destination years ago, but once Salazar took over... well, that died off bit by bit. It’s hard to attract tourists when you’re shooting your political opponents and bleeding the country dry.” She frowned thoughtfully. “But... there are rumors that a few major chains are looking at re-opening their hotels here. They just need a reason.”

Jake nodded. “I took a look around when I was flying over the city, and again when I took a taxi from the airport. Most of the city is still kind of a wreck – no offense – and the roads suck, but the countryside around here is amazing. Has anyone tried to promote the whole eco-tourism angle?”

“Oh, yes, but that takes money. You can’t just say ‘come look at our trees,’ can you? You’d need to improve the roads going in and out of the jungle, for one thing. And we have an interior department, of course, but right now the government has different priorities. And then we’d have to promote it to the rest of the world and that takes money too.”

“So you’d need a source of private funding to make things happen.” Sighing theatrically, Jake said, “Damn, if only there was someone living here who’d just come into a whole pile of money that they don’t know what to do with.”

Estela stopped in her tracks and glared at Jake. “That’s not funny,” she snapped.

Jake came to a halt as well, and he looked out at the horizon. “Nope. It ain’t. But last time I talked to Malfoy, he said that he’s bound and determined to get rid of as much of Rourke’s money as possible, as fast as possible, and in places where it’d actually do some good. I know you got a big fat bank account these days, and I figure you don’t want to hold onto that money any more than your brother does.” He began walking again and after a moment, Estela fell into step beside him. “I know back in the States how much you could do with... let’s start with a million bucks. How much further do you think that would go down here? Construction costs are lower, labor is cheaper – hell, you could pay people wages they never thought they’d see.”

“Wages for _what_ , though?” Estela asked thoughtfully. Without waiting for an answer, she went on, “You mentioned construction. You’re right, the road going out to the airport is awful. I can’t exactly do anything about that as a private citizen, but if I talked to the mayor, maybe I could – I don’t know, donate the cost of repaving….” Trailing off, she looked at Jake in irritation. “I suppose you think you’re clever.”

Barking out a laugh, Jake kept looking at the ocean. “I been called a lot of things in my life, but ‘clever’ doesn’t show up on that list too often. What’s the matter, Katniss? You mad that I made you think about something besides being miserable, at least for a minute?”

It took all of Estela’s self-control to keep her fists at her sides. “Be careful, _cabrón_. Don’t you _dare_ accuse me of – of – do you really think I’m just sitting around being miserable?”

Much more gently than she’d expected, Jake turned to her and replied, “Yeah. Because that’s what you’re doing. I know exactly what it looks like because I did my share of it too. Spent the better part of three years on a beach, just me and my hammock and a bottle, taking whatever jobs I could get when the bottle ran empty. Tryin’ to forget that Mike was gone, and that I could never go home.” His mouth twisted at the memory. “Only reason I took that job flying you morons to La Huerta was because I needed the money, and Lord knows Rourke threw that around like pixie dust.”

Now, it was Estela’s turn to stare at the ocean. “What… what if you hadn’t taken the job?”

Jake laughed softly. “Phony Stark woulda found himself another pilot and I’d still be on that beach, or one just like it. A little older, a little drunker. And… I wouldn’t have had a chance to clear my name. I wouldn’t have been able to hug my parents and my sister for the first time since I was barely older than you. And….” He cleared his throat before he went on more quietly, “I wouldn’t have seen Mike again, even if – if it was just for a little while.”

“Was it enough for you, though… just having him back for a little while?” Estela asked through her tears. She didn’t pull away when Jake put an arm around her shoulders and gently urged her to walk along with him.

“No. And yeah. It was enough, because it was a damn sight better than nothing.”

Estela swallowed hard and scrubbed at her eyes. “All my life, I never thought about – about falling in love. Everything in my life was aimed at finding out who killed my mother and I decided that love was something that happened to other people. But I met Taylor and… I fought it, but I never had a chance against her. Then as soon as it started, she was gone. I can’t even mourn for her in front of anyone but you and the others, because how can I explain who she was or why she disappeared to someone who wasn’t there? It’s not _fair_ , Jake!”

“I know, Estela,” Jake said as he pulled her a little closer. “But fair is just a place with pony rides and cotton candy. It doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the hands we’re dealt.” He sighed. “You want the truth? A lot of days, going back to a hammock and a bottle sounds pretty damn good to me. But… I don’t want to go back to being that person and I don’t want you to _start_ being that person, or whatever version of grief you’re falling into. And as much as I hate to say it – and if you repeat this, I’ll deny every word – I think you and me both really, really need that weird, annoying group of Care Bears that we fell into. And believe it or not, they need us just as much too, as messed-up as we are. So… come on back to the States with me. You and me can road-trip our way north to meet up with the others. We’re all flying down together to New Orleans and we’re going first class, thanks to Malfoy. Then we’ll get into a _real_ plane – my plane, in case you were wondering. And if I haven’t changed your mind about going to La Huerta by the time we get to Hartfeld, at least I’ll know that you heard me out. Deal?”

Estela stared at Jake’s outstretched hand… then, before she could change her mind, she nodded and placed her hand in his. “I’m not making any promises, but… deal.”

“That’s good enough for me.” Releasing her hand, Jake turned them both around and started to retrace their steps. “Now. Your uncle said I was supposed to ask you about the time you were eight years old, and you beat up some kid over a candy bar…?”

Groaning, Estela rolled her eyes. “First of all, I’m going to kill Tio Nicolas. Second, I was _nine_ , thank you very much, and I was tired of the way Pedrito always picked on younger kids so when he grabbed Mia’s candy bar, I decided to get it back for her. It’s not my fault the idiot couldn’t take a punch.” She scowled at Jake’s snort of laughter. “Just you wait until I meet _your_ parents and get some dirt on you.”

“Ain’t gonna happen. Even as a kid, I was smooooth.” And as they walked back to her uncle’s house, for the first time in far too long, Estela found herself truly comfortable.

* * *

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to let him out of his carrier?” Grace asked in concern from where she sat with Michelle and Raj. “I mean, what if someone comes into the lounge?”

“That’s why I’m sitting with my back to the door,” Craig told her as he scratched the underside of Furball’s chin. His eyes closed tightly, the blue fox chirped in appreciation. “Besides, we got this lounge to ourselves and we can’t expect our frosty little dude here to stay in that crate non-stop, right?”

Grace shook her head, still concerned. “I suppose not. Still….”

“I got it handled, Grace.” Zahra pointed to the phone sitting on the table next to her. “Since Al bought every first-class seat on this flight, no one should come wandering in here but just in case, I stuck a camera with a motion sensor right outside the door. If anyone who’s not supposed to be here gets close, we’ll tell Popsicle here to scoot back inside.” Ripping off a chunk of jerky, Zahra lobbed it toward the fox; without opening his eyes, he snatched it neatly out of the air.

“Hey. What about me?” Craig pointed at his mouth and, with a grin, Zahra tossed another piece to him. “Thanks, babe.”

On the other side of the room, Aleister and Quinn studied the notebook Sean was scribbling in. “...so when you said that you and Varyyn talked about building some sort of permanent base for us on La Huerta, I started thinking about what we could build that wouldn’t make the Vaanti think we’re trying to take over like Rourke did. I figure that simple is the best way to go,” Sean said.

Nodding slowly, Aleister said, “It seems like a fairly straightforward design. After all, we won’t need anything too fancy when we’re down there.” He flashed a wry smile to the others. “Unlike my father, I promise to keep the gold leaf and fawning portraits to a minimum.”

“And if the bedrooms stay small, we could easily fit in enough for all of us, especially since there’ll be some doubling-up,” Quinn added. “What about power, though? The only thing I think I’d miss about the hotel is hot showers.”

“I was talking to Grace about that earlier – she says that solar cells will be more than enough to keep the lights on, especially if we build on the beach,” Sean told her. “On-demand water heaters are cheap and easy to install. She’s planning on finding out more about water collection methods when we get to Elyys’tel.”

Aleister thought for a moment. “I don’t think it would be at all appropriate to build on the site of the Celestial, but there’s a spot several miles to the east that might fit the bill. There aren’t any Vaanti settlements nearby, mainly because they didn’t want to get anywhere near my father. It shouldn’t be too difficult to convince them to let us use a small patch of land on the southern coast. I really don’t want to bring in any construction workers, though.”

“I don’t think we’d need to.” Flipping to another page, Sean began sketching quickly. “I volunteered with a house-building group a few summers ago and it’s not as hard as you think. Besides, there’ve been a lot of advances in constructing houses with 3-D printers so that would make it even easier. I’d need to read up on how to run wiring and water pipes, but I don’t see why we couldn’t do it ourselves – with help from the Vaanti, if they want to give us a hand. The hardest part would be getting the raw materials down there… well, and the huge printer too, I suppose.”

Quinn nodded. “It would take a bunch of trips using Jake’s plane. Or… could we use a boat? There’d be a lot more room for storage and we could probably get everything down there in a lot fewer trips.”

“A boat?” Aleister raised his eyebrows slowly. “You know, I’ve always thought it would be… well, fun to have a boat….”

Michelle sighed as she looked at her phone. “I hope Jake gets here soon. And I hope Estela is with him.”

“Oh, I _really_ hope she is,” Grace agreed. “She seemed okay at dinner last night, but… she didn’t actually say that she was coming with us, did she?”

Raj put an arm around her shoulders. “You gotta have faith, Gracie. I think it’s a good sign that Estela even made it this far. And if she’s not ready to go back to La Huerta with us… well, we gotta respect that. The worst thing we could do is push her before she feels like she can handle it. Jake said that if she doesn’t go all the way, we’d drop her off in San Trobida before we head for the island. Whatever she decides, she’s got to know that we’re not pressuring her or judging her.”

“I suppose you’re right. Oh, and Raj?”

“Yeah?”

Grace looked up at him with a sweet smile. “ _Never_ call me Gracie again, all right?”

With a booming laugh, Raj kissed the top of her head. “You got it, you scary little person, you.”

Joining in their laughter, Michelle started to say something, but her words died away when she saw Zahra pick up her phone and look at the screen. With an almost invisible smile, she muttered, “Well, will you look at that?”

Michelle looked at Zahra in concern. “What do you… oh.” All conversation in the lounge stopped as two figures appeared in the doorway.

Not bothering to hide the quaver in her voice or the way she held Jake’s hand in a death grip, Estela looked around at her friends. “Well… I guess I’m ready.”


End file.
